Delivering targeted content to computer systems and interconnected devices has many applications. Many content delivery applications have an interest in determining whether the user is likely to be interested in the content before delivering the content to the user. To this end, an effort is made to learn information about the user. Traditional approaches have sought the placement of cookies and other data structures in order to learn some information about the user. More unscrupulous approaches have involved the use of “spy-ware”, with the particular goal of delivering very targeted advertisements to users.
Privacy concerns have always limited the ability of content providers in acquiring information about the user. In the realm of network advertisement delivery, privacy concerns limit the ability of websites and services to target specific advertisements that are more likely to receive a positive response from the user. While targeted advertisement are known to draw more favorable responses from users (and thus are more lucrative), the ability to target advertisements in relation to computer and network activity has been limited by what information advertisement providers may lawfully or ethically obtain.